Jill doesn’t actually bead but she is a friend and I was looking for beads and we had a date hitting up the local swap meets Saturday. I found a couple old bits and bobs but it was more of an experience than a treasure trove. We did see some good stuff, though.
Like this truck we spotted on the way over. Pretty flippin’ awesome, huh.
And saw lots of horrible little dolls and clowns.
And one lady who lost her clothing....

Today’s challenge is to make an inspiration board. I’ve always had a journal, the writing kind, but a couple years ago, my artist friend Karin showed me hers and I was blown away by the page after page of beautiful art instead of a jumble of pointless words. So I’ve been trying to keep more of a visual journal, which is mostly me amassing torn scraps from magazines and occasionally sitting down and gluing them in. I also...

I got the correct tape and gave soldering another shot, on a piece of beach pottery I found on the San Francisco Bay. It is not the prettiest soldering work ever, and I am very badly burned, and I managed to use up half the spool of solder, and I couldn’t get the jump ring to stay on — maybe I should practice on something a little more regularly-shaped til I get this down.
Day 7: Use a different metal in your jewelry
Day 10: Use a...

Day 4 was Organize your bead area. I cleaned up my tote bag. I would take a picture but would just think, lord, her bag is a *mess*. But all the stray little beads got put away and my findings and pendants and grouped nicely and believe me, it is about eighty times better and that’s what counts. If you’re feeling disappointed by the lack of evidence, here is a picture of someone who is seriously organized:
There are many other fly...

I tried to solder a piece of beach pottery to make it into a pendant, but that didn’t work out at all — there were many extremely frustrated attempts at making the solder not go flying off the piece and spent an hour turning the internet upside down trying to figure out WHY until finding out I was using the wrong kind of tape. Even though it is clearly labeled as being for soldering. Anyway. I will get some proper tape and redo that...

Amy lost one of her favorite earrings and asked if I’d be able to replicate it since she’d bought it years ago and the designer had closed up her etsy shop.
Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge
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Jill doesn’t actually bead but she is a friend and I was looking for beads and we had a date hitting up the local swap meets Saturday. I found a couple old bits and bobs but it was more of an experience than a treasure trove. We did see some good stuff, though.

Like this truck we spotted on the way over. Pretty flippin’ awesome, huh.

Today’s challenge is to make an inspiration board. I’ve always had a journal, the writing kind, but a couple years ago, my artist friend Karin showed me hers and I was blown away by the page after page of beautiful art instead of a jumble of pointless words. So I’ve been trying to keep more of a visual journal, which is mostly me amassing torn scraps from magazines and occasionally sitting down and gluing them in. I also practice my calligraphy (still working on that) and keep movie ticket stubs and lists of things I want to do this summer and occasionally even draw (still working on that, too). So these are a couple pages from that.

Jewelry

Style

Hair

So we’re not going in order any more, I’m just doing things as I get them done and photographed. Days 6 and 8 are queued up already, 11 and 12 need photos, Day 9 I should have saved that flower for.

I got the correct tape and gave soldering another shot, on a piece of beach pottery I found on the San Francisco Bay. It is not the prettiest soldering work ever, and I am very badly burned, and I managed to use up half the spool of solder, and I couldn’t get the jump ring to stay on — maybe I should practice on something a little more regularly-shaped til I get this down.

Day 7: Use a different metal in your jewelry
Day 10: Use a found object

Day 4 was Organize your bead area. I cleaned up my tote bag. I would take a picture but would just think, lord, her bag is a *mess*. But all the stray little beads got put away and my findings and pendants and grouped nicely and believe me, it is about eighty times better and that’s what counts. If you’re feeling disappointed by the lack of evidence, here is a picture of someone who is seriously organized:

I tried to solder a piece of beach pottery to make it into a pendant, but that didn’t work out at all — there were many extremely frustrated attempts at making the solder not go flying off the piece and spent an hour turning the internet upside down trying to figure out WHY until finding out I was using the wrong kind of tape. Even though it is clearly labeled as being for soldering. Anyway. I will get some proper tape and redo that later.

So I made a singed-edged flower and sewed a vintage-style cluster of beads in the center, then took a trio of ribbons, did some heavy wire wrapping at a couple points, then tried doing a wire-wrapped finding-end instead of using a crimp. I think I might take the flower off and stick it on a hairpin instead, I’ll probably get more use out of it that way.